1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to belts with ratchet type buckling means and, more particularly, to a structural improvement in the buckling means for simplifying the construction of the belt and easily fastening or unfastening the belt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Belts are adjustable bands or strips of leather, synthetic resin, etc worn around the waist to support or keep in place clothes. A typical belt worn around the waist to keep in place clothes, in particular, shirt and trousers and to provide decoration effect has a plurality of holes formed in an end portion thereof and a buckle coupled to the other end portion thereof. The buckle has a bolt which will be inserted in one of the holes of the one end portion to fasten the belt.
In the prior art, a belt with a ratchet type buckling means has been proposed. In the belt with the ratchet type buckling means, a ratchet part of a given length is provided in an end portion of the belt, while a pawl for selectively engaging with the ratchet part is provided in a buckle of the other end portion of the belt. In order to facilitate operation of the pawl, a lever is integrally formed with the pawl. The lever is turned to engage or disengage the pawl with or from the ratchet part and thereby fastening or unfastening the belt worn around the waist.
As the pawl lever is integrally formed with the pawl, the above belt has a problem that the size of the buckle is enlarged and thereby increasing weight of the belt and causing inconvenience in use of the belt. Another problem of the above belt is resided in that a user should repeatedly lever, putting up with troublesome, the pawl every when unfastening the belt.
Korean Utility Model Appln. No. 92-5785 discloses a belt with a ratchet type buckling means. As shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b, an end portion of the belt 20 has a ratchet part 21, while the other end portion of the belt 20 is coupled to a buckle 22. The buckle 22 has top and bottom walls 22a and 22b which horizontally integrally extend from the top and bottom edges of a front panel and are integrated into a single body by means of a narrow back panel 22c. A spring-biased pawl 24 which will engage or disengage with or from the ratchet part 21 is pivoted to the back panel 22c. The pawl 24 is bent round at its center and biased by a spring 23. A movable shaft 26a vertically penetrates the top and bottom walls 22a and 22b in back of the front panel. Top and bottom ends of the movable shaft 26a projecting out of the walls 22a and 22b are provided with their push buttons 27 and 27a. A cylindrical bolt 25, comprising top and bottom pieces, is fixedly fitted over the shaft 26a such that the top and bottom pieces are spaced out at an interval. The bolt 25 is biased by a compression coil spring or a bumper spring 26 downward, the bumper spring 26 being fitted over the shaft 26a above the bolt 25. The bottom piece of the bolt 25 has a conical top. The round bent center of the spring-biased pawl 24 is rested on the shaft 26a between the top and bottom pieces of the bolt 25.
When fastening the belt, the button 27a is manually pushed up to lift up the shaft 26a along with the bolt 25. The conical top of the bottom piece of the bolt 25 thus lifts up the round bent center of the pawl 24 and thereby disengaging the pawl 24 from the ratchet part 21. When removing the pushing force from the button 27a, the shaft 26a along with the bolt 25 elastically moves down by the spring 26 so that the pawl 24 elastically returns to its original position by the spring 23 and is brought into engagement with the ratchet part 21. However, this belt has a problem that the buckle 22 should be sufficiently thickened such that the turning motion of the pawl 24 should be totally covered by the thickness of the buckle 22. This makes the buckle 22 dull and stout. Another problem of the belt is resided in that the turning motion of the pawl 24 caused by the vertical movement of the shaft 26a can not be smoothly achieved.